


Toil and Trouble

by Soul_in_the_Starlight



Series: Recovery [2]
Category: Being Human, Being Human (UK)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-20
Updated: 2012-07-20
Packaged: 2017-11-10 08:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/464367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soul_in_the_Starlight/pseuds/Soul_in_the_Starlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Looking after Hal while Tom goes out to work might not be such a good idea...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to 'A Better Way to Die'

"See yers later!"

The front door slams shut, waking Hal. He's been sleeping fitfully on the chair to which he's still tied. He lifts his head, his neck a pillar of pain from the awkward way it's been supporting his head. He blinks a few times adjusting his eyes to the light, trying to focus. Alex sits in front of him, a sympathetic smile on her face.

He clears his throat; it feels dry and hot.

"Where's Tom?"

Alex nods towards the front door. "He's gone to open up the cafe."

Hal frowns, disorientated. "What time is it?"

"It's just after six. He's pulling double shifts while you're… um, 'indisposed'."

Alex makes quotation marks in the air, and Hal grimaces.

"May I have a drink please? I'm really thirsty."  
  
 _Another day of ritual humiliation stretches before him, asking the others to attend to his every need._

"Sure." Alex stands with a cheery smile. "What would you like? There's water, fruit juice, or milk." 

Hal's brow crinkles again. "Can't I have a cup of tea?"

Alex's face takes on the sympathetic look again.

"Sorry, no stimulants, remember? No tea, coffee, alcohol, fizzy drinks, or 'E' numbers." She counts the forbidden items off on her fingers. 

_As if she'd forget._

Hal pouts, actually properly pouts. Alex tries not notice what that does for his lips.

"Fine," he exhales. "I'd like water, please."

"Coming right up!" Alex is gone with a twirl of her dress and a clomp of her boots. Hal grits his teeth, struggling against the restraints, just because. They stay firmly fixed in place.

"Here you go," Alex returns purposefully from the kitchen with a glass of cold water, the condensation visibly beading on the side.  
  
She's put a bendy straw in it, and kneels beside Hal, holding the glass, directing the straw between his lips. Some of the condensation drips from the glass onto his thigh, and without thinking, Alex reaches out brushing her fingers over the dampness. Hal keeps his focus on the cold liquid as he sucks it into his mouth. It's straight from the fridge, leaving a cold trail down the inside of his throat and into his stomach. But the wet spot on his thigh where she touched him, somehow burns him. He risks lifting his gaze, and finds Alex's wide eyes watching his mouth.

He finishes the water, the last swallow leaves his throat numb with cold. 

"Thank you," he says, when she takes the straw from him. She's smiling again.

"You're welcome. Can't have you dehydrating, while you're drying out, now, can we, eh?"

She's on her feet suddenly,  heading back to the kitchen. Hal watches the way she walks, and thinks the sway of her hips would be even better in a pair of heels. He doesn't understand the modern woman and her love for utility footwear. 

When Alex comes back, she resumes her position on the bar stool in front of him.

"Have you been there all night?" he asks, suddenly self-conscious of Alex watching him sleep, or at least, _trying_ to sleep.  
  
 _And not succumb to the raging need, rhythmically enveloping him in painful waves._

"Well, someone had to keep an eye on you. And Tom has to go to work. Don't worry, I wasn't _watching_ you all night, seeing you cry and dribble once was enough to turn me to late night telly."

Hal looks mortified, but then remembers her teasing.

"Oh yes, very funny. Nice try." He gives her a sarcastic grin. Alex shrugs.

"No, really. This time you were actually crying. Although the dribbling happened a wee bit later."

"Oh, marvellous."  
  
 _As if being tied up and being treated like a child wasn't bad enough._

"Get over yourself. You're in rehab, dignity's a luxury. Nothing I haven't seen on a Sunday morning round the breakfast table back home."

Her mention of family life makes him wince.

"Alex, I'm sorry." 

"What for?"

He hesitates. _For everything;_  but he doesn't yet know how to begin to apologise for all of it.

"For… for trying to force myself on you." He _is_ sorry for that, but it hardly covers it.

"No, really, it's OK, I'm sorry too."

"Why are _you_ sorry?" 

She gazes at the toes of her boots before confessing.

"I was baiting you. Deliberately. We had to test you out, see how bad it was, so it's not your fault. But I got carried away, you… _I_ shouldn't have gone that far."

Alex looks down at her feet again.  
  
 _Is she ashamed?_

"No, Alex, really, it was my fault. It's really not who I am when I'm dry, it's not who I want to be, I.."

"I kind of wanted to." She blurts it out.

"What?"

"I wanted you to go that far. Bloody hell, this being dead thing is such a cockblock!" She doubles over, covering her head with her hands, and shakes her head, frustrated.

Hal just stares, there's no ready reply that springs to mind. She sits back up again.

"I might be dead, Hal, but I'm not, y'know, _dead_. You're a good-looking guy; I know _you_ can't see it, but you are, and I just… I kind of just wish I'd got to shag you before I died." 

The absurdity hits home, and she laughs.

"Or, y'know, not died at all. Actually, that would be the better wish, Alex. Jesus, where's my head. I'm wasting my non-existent wishes on a shag!"

Her eyes take on the shimmer of unshed tears, but she lets out another laugh, shaking her head again.

Hal just watches her minor breakdown, wide-eyed. Women; after all the centuries he's lived, he will never understand them.

"Alex, I would have killed you, if we'd had sex. Believe me, you'd be no better off."  
  
 _But first the sex, the slow, delicious sex._

  
She lets out a snort.

"Uh, hello, I would have had sex!"

Hal sighs, exasperated.  
  
 _Is she sex mad? Is it catching?_

"Yes, and therefore you'd probably be spending this remaining time on Earth stark naked."  
  
 _She probably looks really good naked._

Alex looks shocked.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Now, thank you for getting me a drink, and for your company, Alex, but I think I'd like to be alone for a while."

"What's the matter, all the sex talk making you horny? Have fun with that, with your tied-up hands." The sarcasm boils over in her voice as she stands and turns away.

"No, Jesus Alex, is sex _all_ you think about? I actually think _I'd_ have been the one drained dry, if I'd given in to your charms."

Alex spins round.

"So I _do_ have charms?" 

"Well obviously. Which is why I ran away, in the museum. I couldn't give in to them, it would have been… too tempting."  
  
 _How is she so lively when she's dead?_

Alex sits back on the stool.

"Have you _ever_ had sex while sober?"

" _Dry_ , Alex, the term we use is _dry_."

"Dry then, whatever. But have you?"

"I'm not really sure that's any of your business. My sexual history isn't relevant to this current situation…"  
  
 _It's been a long time. A very long time. Too long perhaps. Why_ _can't ghosts have sex?_

"Yes it is. Of course it is. You got all... weird and creepy with me, because you drank blood. But in the museum, you were like a rabbit in the headlights when I wanted to kiss you. Maybe you'd have been OK, maybe you just _think_ you'll fall of the wagon if you have sex. I mean, _kissing_ isn't too much, maybe a little hands on..."  
  
 _Oh dear, kissing is more than enough, and as for the hands..._

"And I suppose you've already forgotten that I tried to molest you, when you asked me about what I'd have done to you? And that was just talking, Alex."

"Yeah, _after_ you'd drunk blood, that's what I'm saying. But look, we're talking about sex stuff now, and you're not really affected, so you're making progress."

"Really, Alex? Am I _really_?"  
  
 _She's not been paying attention._

He smiles, and it's predatory, she can see the tips of his fangs behind his lip. His eyes are still normal, but they look darker, the pupils wide, and his hair is damp at the temples with sweat. And that's not just a wrinkle of fabric in his lap.

Alex swallows, but it's not fear that opens her eyes wider, increases her breaths, elicits the faint moan. 

It's desire.

"You should leave now." Hal's voice is low and dangerous again, like it was in his room, when he was…  
  
O _n top of her, pressing himself against her, his lips on hers, his tongue in her mouth, on her neck, describing how she'd die..._

Alex vanishes suddenly, leaving him alone. 

Hal chokes back a sob in the silence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looking after Hal while Tom goes out to work might not be such a bad idea...

Alex creeps back down stairs a couple of hours later. Hal looks up when she enters the room, and he looks about as sheepish as she feels, as she takes a seat on the bar stool.

"Hey," she says with an odd little wave.

Hal does his almost-smile, and she feels a tiny bit less awkward about what happened.

"I'm sorry," Alex isn't really sure what for, but figures it's a worthwhile gesture in the circumstances.

"Thanks, but it's really not your fault that I can't control myself."

Alex bites her lip, and sighs.

"No, it is, I keep talking about sex, and it's clearly not a good topic for you right now. And there I go talking about it _again,_ while apologising for keep talking about it. I don't even know _why_ I keep talking about it. Maybe it's because I won't be having it again. Oh God, that is really, _really_ depressing."

Alex looks so mortified that the half-formed admonishment dies on Hal's lips and he lets out a chuckle.

"I don't see what's so funny. Y _ou_ can still have sex, you just don't want to. Which, frankly, is really ungrateful and kind of rude."

Hal raises an eyebrow.

"Alex, when _I_ have sex, the other person always dies."

"Yeah, well, at least then they have an _actual_ excuse for not calling back." She shifts in her seat, looking cross, and Hal can't help but smile. Only Alex could see the positive in that statement. 

_Oh God, is this admiration?_

"And now I'm dead. But without the sex. How is that _right_?"

Alex gets off the stool and goes and sits on the arm of the sofa, picking up one of the cushions, hugging it to her chest.

"I'm sorry you died, Alex. Really. I should never have called you, I should never have let Tom talk me into trying to have a love life. I _knew_ it wouldn't work, but I let myself be fooled into thinking…"

He stops, sighing and shaking his head.

"Thinking what?"

"Thinking that it might be _different_ this time. It's been such a long time since someone has wanted me, I let it cloud my judgement. I'm so sorry, Alex, I should have just made up some excuse not to see you."

He looks so sincere, and so sad, and it makes her feel weird in the chest.

_Do ghosts have a heart?_

"Well, I'm _partly_ to blame, I've never been good at taking no for an answer. We should call it quits and just concentrate on getting you dry, and me through that door, yeah?"

Hal smiles at her positivity. 

"OK, quits it is."

They sit in silence for a few moments, Alex chewing her lip.

"No, but _why_ can't ghosts have sex?"

"Alex!"

"No, listen, I mean why not? I can touch you, right? You were on top of me, I'm real to you, so _why_ can't I have sex?"

"Alex, _please_ , I don't know. And can we _not_ talk about me being on top of you…"

_Because it felt much too nice._

"But it doesn't make sense! It can't be just 'cause I'm dead, because you're dead too, and _you_ still get to have sex. And _you_ kill people afterwards, so how is that fair?"

"Alex, I'm _un_ -dead, I still have a working body. And can we _please_ not go down this road again."

She gets excited suddenly.

"Oh! Can I have sex with other ghosts? Does _that_ work? Where would I even find them?"

"I don't think so, no. I've known lots of ghosts, and none of them had sex with each other. Now please, Alex, can we change the subject, I'm really not in control…"

"It's not _all_ about you, y'know. Some of us are _actually_ dead, and pretty narked about it."

"I thought we'd called quits?"

"Whatever, God, let me have have my moment of non-existential crisis!"

Hal lets out a puff of exasperation.

"You know what? Just kill me, just stake me where I sit, because I don't think I can bear another day of you sitting here moaning."

_Not that kind of moaning, anyway._

_No._

_Stop it._

"Oh, well, pardon my angst, Mr 'Boo Hoo Everyone Dies When I Shag Them'. No-one _makes_ you kill them. Have you ever tried, just, I don't know, _not_ killing them? Hmm? I mean, there must have been a time when you _didn't_ kill people after sleeping with them, maybe try and remember that as a thing that can happen."

Alex is standing now, walking towards him as she rants, still clutching the cushion. She punctuates the end of the sentence by throwing it at his head, and misses, which makes her squeal with frustration and stomp off to the kitchen. Hal just wonders what he's done to deserve this, wonders why he didn't just do as Cutler said, and re-join the Old Ones. _They_ didn't get cushions thrown at their heads by hysterical ghosts.

She returns a few minutes later, with a glass of apple juice, condensation beading on the side of it again. Hal hopes it doesn't drip on him this time, he's not sure he can deal with her touching him there.

"I thought you might be thirsty again, it's been a wee while since the last drink. No irony intended." 

This time, she comes and stands beside him, cradling the glass so that she catches the beads of moisture as they fall. Hal isn't particularly thirsty, but appreciates the gesture, drinking half of it before pushing the straw out from between his lips with his tongue.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Alex sets the glass on the bar stool and returns to the arm of the sofa.

"Why did you save me, Alex?"

"What?"

"The explosion, why did you save me? I'm an Old One, you could have rid the world of me, weakened the vampire stronghold. But you saved me."  
  
 _But can she save him?_

Alex's forehead wrinkles in confusion, and shrugs.

"I don't know, because Annie told me to. I figured she must have thought you were worth saving."

"And am I?"

"I don't know Hal, I still don't really know you from Adam."

He looks at her intently.

"What did you say?"

"I said, I still don't really know you from Adam, you know, that old saying. I thought you of all all people would know that one."

Hal sits up straight in his chair, looking disturbingly cheery.

"Adam. But of course. _Adam_."

"Who's Adam?"

"Some sex-mad little oik, a friend of Annie's. He came to hide out here for a while, with his Succubus girlfriend."

Alex raises her eyebrows.

"Long story, you don't want to know. Anyway, I don't know if it was just because she was a Succubus, but Adam didn't kill her, and they apparently had lots of sex. She couldn't kill _him_ because he's already dead, but maybe it _is_ possible. Maybe it _is_ just me, maybe you're right, Alex, maybe you actually have a point."

"Oh, thanks, don't sound too surprised, will you."

Hal ignores her sarcasm.

"You said maybe I just think I'll fall off the wagon if I have sex. Maybe you're right, maybe it's just been how I operate for so long, that I've forgotten that perhaps I _do_ have a choice."

Hal looks relieved, and it makes Alex feel what she'd call butterflies, if she had a proper stomach still.

"Do you actually _want_ to have sex again?"

Hal looks at her with a coy smile.

"It has been a very long time, Alex."

She stands up purposefully and walks over to stand in front of him.

"OK then, well, all we have to do is find a nice girl who's willing to have sex with you. And all _you_ have to do is not kill her when you're done."

Hal's smile fades.

"When you say it like that, it really doesn't sound like a good idea."

Alex's face falls, she shakes her head.

"No, probably not. We should maybe wait till we get you fully detoxed. Unless…"

Hal's eyes narrow, Alex has that look on her face which, in his many years experience, means that a devious scheme is hatching behind a pretty face.

"Unless _what_?"

Alex steps closer and drops down on to her knees in front of him.

"Unless we try it out first with me. You can't hurt me, and you're tied up, and I can just Rentaghost away if it gets too much."

Hal swallows, his heart hammering in his chest.

"You didn't vanish when I tried to… you know, in my room."  
  
 _She didn't fight, she just pulled him closer_

Alex puts her hand on his knee, rubbing the inner side with her thumb.

"I didn't want to…"

She puts her other hand on his other knee and inches forward on her own knees until she's between his thighs.

She looks in to his eyes, his pupils are blown wide open, and he looks at her with such… _hunger_.

"Alex," he whispers, and it sounds so desperate.

She places her hands on his chest, over his racing heart, feeling his chest heave. He looks down at her long fingers resting there, then his eyes flick to hers.

"What does it feel like?" she asks, "when I touch you? When a _ghost_ touches you. Tell me what you feel."

Hal doesn't know if he can even speak, let alone form a sentence, his tongue feels too big, and he can feel his vampire side coiled, ready to unleash, his fangs already pricking at his lower lip. He swallows again.

"It feels… it feels strange. It feels like being on a plane, feeling the fuselage beneath your feet, knowing you're on something solid, yet beneath that, there's nothing there."

"Like you're safe, but free-falling, all at the same time?" Alex slides her hands up his chest, over his collarbones, continuing until they slide around behind his neck.

"Yes… _Alex_ …"

"Show me how you would have kissed me, that day in the museum. If you hadn't been an awkward, uptight vampire who got scared and ran away."

Alex leans forward until their faces are so close Hal can't focus on her lips any more. 

She closes the gap and kisses him lightly.

_Don't let it get away from you, concentrate._

She pulls back, and he licks his lips, they feel tingly from the fleeting touch. Alex's eyes roam over his face.

"Maybe this is my unfinished business. Maybe I have to get you back in the saddle, so you can live a proper, normal life."

"Why would you want to do that," he asks, hoping she'll kiss him again.

"Because you're too pretty to go to waste."

Alex comes close enough for their lips to meet but stops short, waiting. Hal leans forward to close the gap, bringing their lips together, moving his softly against hers, although it takes all his willpower not to try and possess them.

_Take it slow._

They part again, and Alex stands up, causing his heart to lurch, making him wonder if he's done something wrong. But instead, she sits on his lap, slightly awkwardly, a kind of side-saddle because of the arms on the chair. She slips her arms around his neck again, and starts kissing his face, working her way down to his neck, pulling aside the collar of his shirt to expose the expanse of smooth skin and the outline of his clavicle, her lips trailing butterfly kisses that make him moan softly, like a man caught in the delirium of fever.

_Is this the key to it? Thorough submission? Giving over the control?_

She stops for a moment, which makes him whimper, and she speaks softly in to his ear, deliberately squirming against the hardness in his lap.

"I've had far worse jobs than baby-sitting a sex-starved vampire."

She's kissing his mouth again, suddenly, thoroughly; invading him, taking, _possessing_.

And then, with a sigh soft as sunbeams, she's gone.  
  
A small cry of frustration escapes Hal's lips, but when his tongue flicks out to moisten them, the sharpness of his fangs is missing; the only hunger he feels is for the press of her body and lips against his, and the closeness of her arms wrapped around him.

  



End file.
